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Double deck blackjack doesn’t have the sexiness or allure of single deck blackjack, which many players look for as the ultimate in blackjack games. Having only two decks helps the player, but not as much as having just one deck; you can make adjustments based on the cards you see in your hand when playing double deck blackjack, but not as much as you can in the single deck game.

Best Double Deck Blackjack Sites

But despite this, double deck blackjack is often a much better game for the player than single deck blackjack! This is because many casinos are careful to only offer single deck blackjack games with rules that are designed to hurt the player. The most common of these is the 6-5 blackjack rule, in which blackjacks pay 6-5 odds instead of the standard 3-2 payout. While a single deck game does give some advantages to the player, the 6-5 blackjack rule counteracts this advantage and actually makes the game worse than your typical blackjack game with six or eight decks.

These rule changes are less common in double deck blackjack, which means that a double deck game can often be the best blackjack option in a given casino. Sure, some live casinos have been known to try to tilt the odds slightly by adding rules that only allow the player to double down on 10 or 11, and allowing the dealer to hit on soft 17s. However, even with these rules, the games are at worst similar to standard blackjack games, and there are tons of double deck blackjack games that don’t take anything away from the player – especially online.

Sometimes, double deck blackjack will even give you advantages that you can’t find in a single deck game. As with single deck blackjack, double deck blackjack (in live casinos) is usually dealt face down to the players to help avoid giving away too much information during a hand. However, because there are two decks involved, the casino will often deal a few hands before reshuffling, meaning that you can actually get some meaningful information about the cards that have been removed from the shoe. Even for non-card counters, this information can come in handy, and for counters, double deck blackjack can be a real boon, especially if the casino normally deals through half or more of the shoe before reshuffling.

Double Deck Blackjack Strategy

Double deck blackjack is mostly played similarly to a standard blackjack game (Try out a free blackjack game). Because of the smaller pool of cards, taking one card out of the deck can greatly impact the odds of receiving another card of that rank, which does change some of the close decisions; however, most of the basic strategy rules you know for standard blackjack games still apply. Where there are changes, they can vary based on the exact rules being used in your favorite local or online casino.

In the end, just how big is the impact of double deck blackjack on your chances? Compared to playing eight deck blackjack, double deck blackjack reduces the house edge by about 0.19%. This is a significant change, though not as dramatic as the 0.48% reduction seen in single deck blackjack games.